Krystyna Mitrga-Niestrj

Uniwersytet Ekonomiczny wKatowicach

THE SHARING ECONOMY AND COLLABORATIVE

FINANCE OUTLINE OF THE PROBLEMS

Introduction
The revolutionary changes in information technology and the rise of the significance of social networks, stimulate the emergence of the new economic model based rather on the cooperation than on the competition. The indication of these
changes is the vast development of co called sharing economy which is now concerning more and more sector and activities also financial system and finance in
general. The sharing economy manifest itself also in finance through so called collaborative finance. The collaborative finance means finance made by people
without the intermediation of financial institutions. Participants of the collaborative finance are convinced that by peer-to-peer financial transactions they can
create more positive effects and that money becomes human again.
This article aims, firstly, to introduce the concepts of sharing economy and
collaborative finance, and secondly to characterize the emergent forms of collaborative finance. The research methodology is based on aliterature review, using descriptive and qualitative methods.
It must be underline that in aview of the complexity of the issues raised in
this article and alimited volume of paper only chosen problem would be presented.

1. The concept of sharing economy and its scope

The sharing economy (the term was first used in 2008 by Lawrence Lessig,
aprofessor at the Harvard Law School), called also acollaborative consumption,
is anew economical model, being based rather on the consumer cooperation than

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on the competition between producers. This model assumes rather asharing of the
resources and the cooperation, than the priority typical for the market economy
the possession of goods and the competition. In the sharing economy social value
is improved by sharing and not by ownership. So, utilization in this new model
is more important than possession1. Concept of sharing and the cooperation is
nothing new in the society, however at present is gaining the more structural form
and is characterized by first for all common (collective) thinking and the broad
participation in the realization of defined objectives. What more sharing economy gives people sense of independence of governments and corporations.
There are several factors which are contributing to the development of the
concept of sharing economy. The most important issue is that people nowadays
have great capacity to communicate and share thoughts, ideas but also goods. Itis
possible because of the development of the social media agroup of Internetbased applications which through employment of mobile and web-based technologies make people interconnected all over the world. The use of mobile devices
(for instance mobile phones, mobile computers, tablets, pagers, etc.) makes very
easy to locate individuals in time and space but also track and locate things (track
and trace systems)2. So, the sharing economy probably couldnt emerge without
the development of digital economy which is based on digital technologies. Todays networked world based on communication infrastructures allows an unprecedented degree of searching for information, communicating, interacting and collaboration within communities in trans border and global dimension.
An outburst of the financial world-wide crisis and its effects are also an important catalyst of the development of the collaborative consumption. The society
started realizing that by joint organizing and acting it is possible to achieve deliberate objectives more effectively and counteract effects of the financial and economic crises. The global financial crisis raised doubts about functioning of the
current structures of economy and triggered off as well the crisis of trust in the
corporation, financial institutions, as well as governments3.
There are also several factors which make the sharing economy attractive to
consumers, among others are4:

See: P.S. Eun: Collaborative Consumption; Sharing Rather Than Buying, http://www.thegranitetower.com/news/articleView.html?idxno=318 (18 December 2012).
2
Based on the interview: L. Gansky: Three Factors Driving the Sharing Economy. http://www.
wobi.com/wbftv/lisa-gansky-three-factors-driving-sharing-economy (28 December 2012).
3
http://www.deskmag.com/en/the-nature-and-potential-of-the-collaborative-economy
(28December 2012).
4
P.S. Eun: Collaborative Consumption, op. cit.
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sustainable development consumers incline to avoid spending excessively,

they are more likely to use the resources more effectively this induces the
change among manufacturers, who are more prone to discover the demands
of consumers before producing; they dont overproduce leaving resources for
the next generations,
social stability because the concept of sharing economy is based on cooperation, members of the community attach less significance to ownership; it
can lessen the problem of social polarization and make society more harmonious,
meeting the new demands sharing economy can meet the new demand of
consumers which existing economic system cannot afford.
The collaborative consumption in practice involves different activities like
sharing, lending, renting, trading, bartering, gifting and swapping various kinds
of assets (fig. 1 shows the examples).

Fig. 1. Examples of different kind of assets involved in collaborative consumption

Source: Based on: http://www.collaborativefinance.org/ (29 December 2012).

The sharing economy more and more universally manifest itself also in finance through so called collaborative finance.

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2. The collaborative finance and its forms

In last over twenty years the financial industry went through very fast and
deep changes. Technological innovations revolutionized its activity and turned it
into one of the most modern business. However, the global financial crisis caused
the fall of the confidence in financial system especially in banking sector and
people started to seek for an alternative manners of investing capital and financing apart from the traditional financial institutions. The global financial crisis
was one of the principal catalyst for the collaborative finance (also peer-to-peer
finance or person-to-person finance). In general this term refers to financial
transactions which are being conducted between relevant parties (which can be
well-known to oneself or completely anonymous) without the intermediation of
financial institutions. The supporters of the collaborative finance perceive it as the
best answer for all shortcomings of the traditional finance. The development of
collaborative finance is possible nowadays because of the digital networking and
communication infrastructures which provide aplatform for communicating and
cooperation. The natural environment for the collaborative finance is Internet,
and for its users the chances it creates seems to be limitless.
Collaborative finance is particularly attractive to individuals low income
households, students, young couples, because it: facilitates very small savings,
has strong organizational structures, is not regulated by the central bank or any
other financial authority, is non-profit motivated, has multiple proprietorship, has
specific borrowers identified, services are personalized and provides localized services, has high repayment rates (above 95%), facilitates reciprocation of credit
disbursal, has close informational links and also encourages community participation in other fields of development5.
The participants of the collaborative finance find it more human and are
satisfied that they dont have to pay the financial institutions. No banks in the
middle means higher returns for customers. Of course collaborative finance is
not free from problems and risks. One of the main issue is that this new approach to finance, and the sharing economy in general, is based on trust. The
counterparty believes in good intentions of the other side. In such asituation is
therefore not difficult for misappropriation of funds. Other problems are: information asymmetry and its consequence, i.e. negative selection. Of course the Internet platforms take action against these dangers (e.g. collecting detailed information about counterparties, using of credit scoring, collaterals, etc.). Bankruptcy of
http://www.collaborativefinance.org/ (29 December 2012).

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platforms offering the services of p2p finance can also be athreat. These abovementioned are only chosen problems of the collective finance.
There is no universally accepted and used typology of the collaborative finance fig. 2 shows only chosen examples of p2p financial transactions.

Fig. 2. Chosen examples of p2p financial transactions

3. P2p financing social lending and crowdfunding

One of the most important offer in the collaborative finance is possibility of
financing. The main benefits of p2p financing are that lenders get quite high returns and borrowers low-cost loans. There are at least two main possibilities to
obtain funding without the participation of financial institution:
1) social lending,
2) crowdfunding.
Social lending transactions take place on the principle of an auction, through
the Internet, most often on portals specialized in such services. It allows lenders
and borrowers, which different property and social status, to fast agree on conditions of the transaction, and most importantly on interest rate which suits them.
The participants of the p2p lending can be individuals, small and medium-sized
enterprises, however conditions vary according to the country and web portal.
Loans are mainly arranged for consumption, small business activity, studies, but
there are also offers for mortgage loans. The social lending services can be divided in three main categories6:
http://www.wiseclerk.com/group-news/services-p2p-lending-companies-by-loan-volume/
(2January 2013).

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1. P2p lending marketplaces (e.g. Prosper, Zopa) transactions held because of

economic motives.
2. Social lending services enabling micro financing (e.g. Kiva, MyC4) transactions held because of social motives.
3. Others for instance facilitating financing families between friends and members (e.g. family and friend lending which in the past was offered by Virginmoney).
Taking ap2p loan is very easy and takes only afew very simple steps: 1) finding and registering with the website that offers p2p lending (most sites require no
fee to sign up), 2) entering the personal and financial information (its important
for verifying and checking customer credit score), 3) entering information concerning the loan its purpose, size, time and the level of the interest rate which
the borrower is ready to pay, 4) waiting for the results of the auction, during
which offer of the potential borrower finds the ready to grant it lenders (if conditions of the offer are competitive the costs of the loan could be lower), 5) decision acceptance of the loan if the borrower approves or withdraw the listing if
does not (although some fees may apply if the potential borrower withdraws after
the bidding has ended), 6) making payments (usually at monthly basis)7. It is also
possible to find platforms, where potential lenders offer their conditions and borrowers chose the offers which suits them best. In case of p2p financing apossibility exists that one lender lends money for one specific borrower, however due to
the diversification of the risk, lenders prefer the allocation of resources to the bigger number of borrowers with different credit scores. The p2p loans could be: secured loans (require acollateral e.g. acar) and unsecured loans in this case lenders base mainly on the credit worthiness of the consumer8.
The biggest loan volumes are generated in the US market the 2012 was the
best year ever for the US p2p lending industry: loan volume between Prosper and
Lending Club in December was 103.7 million USD and for the year the total was
871.1 million USD a162% increase in one year9. Although the social lending
develop also in other highly developed (e.g. Great Britain, Germany, Spain) and
developing countries (e.g. China, India, South Africa). For instance in Great Britain 2p2 lending is predicted to exceed 300 million GBP in 201310. Fig. 3 shows
K. Lorette: How to find apeople to people lending loan, http://www.ehow.com/how_5554585_
people-people-lending-loan.html (29 December 2012).
8
See: K. Mitrga-Niestrj: Bankowo p2p jako alternatywa dla tradycyjnych bankw detalicznych. Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Marii Curie-Skodowskiej, in press.
9
P. Renton: In 2012 U.S. P2P Lenders Issue $871 Million in New Loans. December 31, 2012,
http://www.lendacademy.com/2012-p2p-lenders-871-million/ (2 January 2013).
10
http://peertopeerlendingtree.com/ (29 December 2012).
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new loans per month in selected p2p companies in millions of USD in march 2011
and march 2012.
P2p lending is also developing in Poland Kokos.pl, or Finansowo.pl are
the examples of web platforms offering such services.

Fig. 3. New loans per month in selected p2p companies in mln of USD in march 2011 and march
2012
Source: Based on: Updated: State of Selected P2P Lending Companies. March 15th, 2011, http://www.wiseclerk.
com/group-news/countries/germany-updated-state-of-selected-p2p-lending-companies/ and State of
Selected P2P Lending Companies. March 15th, 2012, http://www.wiseclerk.com/group-news/category/
p2p-banking-review/ (2 December 2012).

The main idea of the crowdfunding (the term was first used on the blog by
Michael Sullivan in 2006) is that people through collective cooperation network
pool their resources together (usually via the Internet) in order to support various efforts initiated by other people or organizations (e.g. including startup company funding, disaster relief, citizen journalism, support of artists by fans, political campaigns, movie or free software development, and even scientific research).
The crowdfunding is intensively used by the non-profit community and philanthropy and can replace the need for specialized grant applications or other forms
of fundraising. The Internet allows quick and effective way for finding funds for
even sudden needs (e.g. disaster relief)11. The crowdfunding is avery good way
for financing of creative projects if they find peoples wide-web acceptance. And
is avery good example of self organization of people in virtual reality for realization of special goals. There are a multitude of the crowdfunding platforms,
in many countries and very often they specialize in certain areas. There are four
types of crowdfunding platforms:
http://crowdfunding.pbworks.com/w/page/10402176/Crowdfunding (22 December 2012).

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lending-based crowdfunding funders expect their money back plus acommissionafter aset period of time,
equity-based crowdfunding investors receive astake in the company,
reward-based crowdfunding funders receive non-monetary benefits for their donation, agift (e.g. material object or service),
donation-based crowdfunding the motivation of funders is purely philanthropic, for their personal satisfaction12.
According to Crowdfunding Industry Report almost 1.5 billion USD was
raised and more than 1 million successful campaigns were run by crowdfunding
platforms (CFPs) world-wide in 2011. As of April 2012 452 CFPs were operating globally. The Report also assumes that the total funding volume should double in 2012 (fig. 4)13.

Fig. 4. Crowdfunding the total funding volume world-wide

Source: Crowdfunding Industry Report. Market Trends Composition and Crowdfunding Platforms. Research
Report, Abridged Version, May 2012, p. 15.

The crowdfunding is also present in Poland: siepomaga.pl, polakpotrafi.pl,

beesfund.com are examples of platforms offering such services14.
http://brickstarter.org/a-timely-global-survey-of-crowdfunding-platforms/ and http://blog.ideascale.com/2012/05/18/future-of-the-crowdfunding-industry/ (20 December 2012).
13
Crowdfunding Industry Report. Market Trends, Composition and Crowdfunding Platforms, Research Report. Abridged Version, http://www.crowdfunding.nl/wp-content/
uploads/2012/05/92834651-Massolution-abridged-Crowd-Funding-Industry-Report1.pdf, May
2012, (12 December 2012).
14
See: Crowdfunding wPolsce, http://crowdfunding.pl/crowdfunding-w-polsce/#.UOwNUazr0Xg
(2 January 2013).
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4. Other examples of the collaborative finance

The next example of the collaborative finance are social savings which take
place on the Internet platforms. But the social savings platforms differ from the traditional online savings accounts because money is not just being stored but is
saved for aspecific goal. According to Mike Ferrari co-founder of the US platform
SmartyPig people are saving mainly for: saving to save, travel, emergency fund
and home improvement. The goal is made public because people want to be held
accountable and society (including friends and family) donates money (in practice by making acredit card payment) on asaving account. Opening, funding, and
redeeming agoal is free of charge, but there are limitation for savings goal (e.g. for
SmartyPig the minimum requirement for asavings goal is 250 USD and the maximum 250,000 USD). The social savings platforms usually use athird party to hold
the funds e.g. in the US SmartyPig or Savingspoint funds are held at the member
Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) partner bank and are insured by the
FDIC to the full legal amount. The partner bank also determines the interest rate
which is accrued daily and paid on savers account (monthly or quarterly)15.
The collective finance also concerns the issue of currencies, as the problem of monetary reform or transformation is one of the most interesting questions
for apart of modern society, which of course was reinforced by the experiences
of the global financial crisis. There are society groups which are convinced that
they have the right to create currencies or even monetary system which will fulfill
their expectations and needs contrary to the existing one16. The example of the social movement are so called complementary currencies (also called community currencies or local currencies or common tenders) which can be defined
as agreements within acommunity to accept something else than national currencies as ameans of payment. They complementanother currency, usually anational one. It must be stated that the idea of the complementary currency is not
new, although nowadays is arouse interest all over the world. According to professor Margrit Kennedy the most important feature of the complementary currencies is that they are designed for specific purposes and may support the achievement of very important aims, among others: social, cultural or ecological17. Other
http://www.automaticfinances.com/smartypig-social-saving-platform/and, http://banking.about.
com/b/2008/03/08/social-saving-with-smartypig.htm (18 December 2012).
16
Look: Synthetic overview of the collaborative economy. P2P Foundations, 2012, s.241, http://
p2p.coop/files/reports/collaborative-economy-2012.pdf, (18 December 2012).
17
M. Kennedy: Complementary currencies. New Paths to Sustainable Abundance. August 15th
2006, p. 1, http://margritkennedy.de/media/art_en_complementary_currencies_54.pdf (28 December 2012).
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Krystyna Mitrga-Niestrj

distinguished characteristics are that the issuance of these currencies is relative to

use and that they are based on underlying corresponding value18. There are different classifications of the complementary currencies one of them distinguishes
four types of complementary currencies19:
1) fully backed by the national currency e.g. SOL in France, Lewes Pounds in
the UK, Eco-Pesa in Kenya, social currencies in Brazil and others,
2) backed by guarantees from members of the exchange system e.g. Time Dollars, some types of Local Exchange and Trade System (LETS),
3) backed by goods e. g. Mendo Credits in the US or COMAL in Honduras
backed by reserves of stored food, Mulligan Books (backed by inventory of
books), commercial vouchers (coupons) provided in promotional materials
etc.,
4) backed by services: frequent traveller programs in airlines, some types of Regiogeld in Germany.
These currencies very often have alocal character and support the social and
economical development of the given community. One of the well known examples of the local currency is the Brixton Pound (B) in the British town Brixton,
which exists in paper (since September 2009) and electronic format (2 years later). The pound sterling backing for all Brixton Pounds in circulation is held at
alocal bank. The functioning of the B has many important local aims e.g.: developing astrong local economy, raise community awareness of the local Brixton economy and protect jobs and livelihoods of community members20. There are
also examples of introducing local currencies is Poland but with different results.
Another important area of activity of collective finance within currencies is
p2p currency exchanges platforms which match people who want to exchange foreign currencies. Such peer-to-peer marketplace offers attractive exchange rates
because clients deal directly with each other and can negotiate amutually beneficial rate and lower fees comparing to banks21 because the funds do not have
to travel internationally they are available where the client needs them. Exchanging currencies with p2p platforms is very simple, and in case of CurrencyFair one of the most popular platforms operating in the UK, Ireland and Australia
http://www.quora.com/Are-complementary-currencies-a-likely-remedy-for-economic-problems/
answer/Stan-Stalnaker (18 December 2012).
19
Complementary Currencies, http://p2pfoundation.net/Complementary_Currencies (28 December
2012).
20
http://brixtonpound.org (3 January 2013).
21
Most banks charge the spread about 2.5% CurrencyFair the participants decide on the rate. After
the transaction is completed, CurrencyFair charges 0.15% of its value and also asmall fee for
sending the money to the recipients bank account. Over the sea and far away. The Economist,
May 19th 2012, http://www.economist.com/node/21554740 (3 January 2013).
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is done in three easy steps: 1) aclient has to make adeposit of the funds he or she
wants to exchange into segregated client bank account, 2) exchange the funds into
achosen currency (there are now 17 currencies also Polish Zloty) and 3) send the
foreign currency the client has purchased to abank account worldwide. The market is open 24 hours aday, and soon there will be opportunity to exchange currencies also at the weekends22.
The previous forms of collaborative finance are accompanied by development of infrastructure for payments replacing traditional banking and financial
services. P2P payments are person-to-person payments via a mobile phones or
email addresses allowing consumers send or receive money anytime for alow, or
no, fee. P2P payments arent something new because in 1999 it was PayPal which
offered people to exchange money digitally23. P2P payment include various payment activities, e.g.: me-to-me payments (money moves between accounts either on an ad-hoc or regular basis) or me-to-small-business or service provider)24.
Such payments are also part of the traditional banking offer.
The collaborative finance covers also other activities not mentioned before,
as for instance risk and wealth management, insurance or business banking. It is
developing very fast and it is not easy to predict future p2p transactions.

Conclusions
The sharing economy based on collective thinking and cooperation gives an
extraordinary opportunity also in the area of finance. The society is keen on using
all abilities which contemporary institutional changes and technological innovations offer in finance. It turns out that financial institutions arent already essential
for attractive investing or borrowing money. The collective finance is developing
fast and the areas of the p2p financial transactions still emerge. Social lending and
savings, crowdfunding, complementary currencies, P2P payments are only examples of the wide, developing offer and describing the full picture of p2p finance
was beyond this study.
The collective finance for its participants seems to be the right answer for the
dangers of todays globalized world, heavily touched by financial and economic
http://www.currencyfair.com (3 January 2013).
P2P Payment Systems. http://www.collaborativefinance.org/about/p2p-person-to-personpayment-systems/ (4 January 2013).
24
Person-to-Person Payments. http://www.fisglobal.com/products-epaymentpersontopersonpayments (4 January 2013).
22
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Krystyna Mitrga-Niestrj

crisis. Although this new way of making financial business is not free from dangers and important questions. For instance the functioning of p2p finance in developing countries or potential possibility of regulating such transactions. Therefore the collective finance is avery challenging area for afuture research.

Bibliography
Complementary Currencies, http://p2pfoundation.net/Complementary_Currencies
(28December 2012).
Crowdfunding Industry Report. Market Trends, Composition and Crowdfunding Platforms, Research Report. Abridged Version, May 2012,http://www.crowdfunding.
nl/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/92834651-Massolution-abridged-Crowd-Funding-Industry-Report1.pdf (12 December 2012).
Crowdfunding w Polsce, http://crowdfunding.pl/crowdfunding-w-polsce/#.UOwNUazr0Xg (2 January 2013).
Gansky L.: Three Factors Driving the Sharing Economy. http://www.wobi.com/wbftv/
lisa-gansky-three-factors-driving-sharing-economy (28 December 2012).
http://banking.about.com/b/2008/03/08/social-saving-with-smartypig.htm (18 December
2012).
http://blog.ideascale.com/2012/05/18/future-of-the-crowdfunding-industry/ (20 December 2012).
http://brickstarter.org/a-timely-global-survey-of-crowdfunding-platforms/.
http://brixtonpound.org (3 January 2013).
http://crowdfunding.pbworks.com/w/page/10402176/Crowdfunding (22 December 2012).
http://peertopeerlendingtree.com/ (29 December 2012).
http://www.automaticfinances.com/smartypig-social-saving-platform/.
http://www.collaborativefinance.org/ (29 December 2012).
http://www.deskmag.com/en/the-nature-and-potential-of-the-collaborative-economy
(28December 2012).
http://www.quora.com/Are-complementary-currencies-a-likely-remedy-for-economicproblems/answer/Stan-Stalnaker (18 December 2012).
http://www.wiseclerk.com/group-news/services-p2p-lending-companies-by-loan-volume/ (2 January 2013).
Kennedy M.: Complementary currencies. New Paths to Sustainable Abundance. August
15th 2006. http://margritkennedy.de/media/art_en_complementary_currencies_54.
pdf (28 December 2012).

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Lorette K.: How to find a people to people lending loan. http://www.ehow.com/

how_5554585_people-people-lending-loan.html (29 December 2012).
Mitrga-Niestrj K.: Bankowo p2p jako alternatywa dla tradycyjnych bankw detalicznych. Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Marii Curie-Skodowskiej, in press.
Over the sea and far away. The Economist, May 19th 2012, http://www.economist.com/
node/21554740 (3 January 2013).
Park Sang Eun: Collaborative Consumption; Sharing Rather Than Buying, http://www.
thegranitetower.com/news/articleView.html?idxno=318 (18 December 2012).
Renton P.: In 2012 U.S. P2P Lenders Issue $871 Million in New Loans. December 31,
2012, http://www.lendacademy.com/2012-p2p-lenders-871-million/ (2 January
2013).
State of Selected P2P Lending Companies. March 15th, 2012, http://www.wiseclerk.com/
group-news/category/p2p-banking-review/ (2 December 2012).
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coop/files/reports/collaborative-economy-2012.pdf (18 December 2012).
Updated: State of Selected P2P Lending Companies. March 15th, 2011, http://www.wiseclerk.com/group-news/countries/germany-updated-state-of-selected-p2p-lendingcompanies/ (18 December 2012).

EKONOMIA DZIELENIA SI ORAZ WSPLNE

FINANSE ZARYS PROBLEMW
Streszczenie
Ekonomia dzielenia si (sharing economy), nazywana rwnie konsumpcj spoecznociow (collaborative consumption), to nowy model ekonomiczny, opierajcy si raczej na konsumenckiej wsppracy ni na konkurencji producentw. Model ten zakada
raczej dzielenie si zasobami iwspprac, anie typowy dla gospodarki rynkowej priorytet posiadania ikonkurencji. Ekonomia dzielenia si coraz powszechniej dotyczy rwnie
finansw, co przejawia si np. wrozwoju bankowoci p2p czy spoecznociowego rynku walutowego. Celem artykuu jest przedstawienie koncepcji ekonomii dzielenia si oraz
jej przejaww we wspczesnych finansach poprzez przyblienie rodzajw tzw. wsplnych finansw.